Special Jazz Performance for Charity

Deo was a medical student in Burundi when civil war broke out.  He escaped  to Rwanda, just as the genocide was beginning there, and was nearly killed there before escaping back to Burundi.  A friend gave him an airline ticket to New York City, where he knew nobody and did not speak English.  He slept in Central Park and found work delivering groceries.  Fortunately, Deo met people who helped him. 

Deo graduated from Columbia University and went on to attend Harvard’s School of Public Health, where he met Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health, which sponsors community-based health care initiatives, including in Haiti. 

After attending Dartmouth Medical School, Deo returned to Burundi in 2005 to start Village Health Works in the village of Kigutu.  Local volunteers donated land for the clinic, built the road and the building, while supporters in the United States contributed funds.  Patients come to the clinic from all over the area, and from neighboring countries, as its reputation has spread.  Work is beginning on a Women’s Health Pavilion, which will be the first facility in Burundi to focus on maternal health. 

Deo’s story can be found in Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains, published last year and coming out in paperback in May 2010.  

Full disclosure — I’ve known Chris Gillespie for more than 20 years, and have enjoyed his skill at the piano keyboard many times.